State Board Revokes Licenses Of Four Nurses, Disciplines Eight Others

The state Board of Examiners for Nursing has revoked the licenses of four nurses and disciplined eight other nurses, with all but one of the cases connected to alcohol or drug abuse.

Meeting in Hartford on Wednesday, June 15, the board revoked the license of Leslie Matejek, a registered nurse from Derby, after she tested positive for cocaine three times in 2015, the board’s memorandum of decision said.

The memo shows that in 2010 Matejek’s license was placed on probation for four years after she admitted falsifying a prescription for Oxycontin. According to the memo, she tested positive for oxycodone three times in 2010 and morphine twice in 2011. Her probation was later extended to February of this year, with weekly random drug tests.

The board also revoked the license of Jennifer Reinhard, a licensed practical nurse from Torrington, because it found that she had violated the terms of an earlier two-year probation. Reinhard did not supply reports to show she was seeing a therapist or proof that she had passed weekly drug tests, the memorandum of decision said.

The board also revoked the RN license of John Sherman of Watertown, New York, who was working at Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan. The board found that in 2014 Sherman stole anti-anxiety drugs for his own use and used alcohol or drugs to excess, the memorandum of decision said.

The license of Holly Cocchiola, an LPN from Bethlehem, was also revoked. State records show that she tested positive for heroin after a car accident on Feb. 14. She was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance, evading responsibility and driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, records show.

On Wednesday, the board suspended the license of Dorsey Saunders, an LPN from Bridgeport, because she posed “a clear and immediate danger” to the public, state Department of Public Health (DPH) records show.

On March 23 the board placed her license on probation for four years for stealing drugs, including oxycodone and fentanyl, while on duty at Fairview of Fairfield, a nursing home in the Southport section of Fairfield.

Officials from the state Department of Public Health repeatedly tried to contact her and were unsuccessful so it concluded she had failed to comply with the terms of her probation, records show.

The board also suspended the license of Dawn Noyce, an RN from Canterbury. State records show that in April 2015, she pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol and was placed on probation for 18 months. Her probation officer, Julie Valliere, told DPH that Noyce had been fired from two nursing jobs in the past year and has struggled with drug and alcohol abuse, records show.

The board imposed a four-year probation on Jamie Libertini, an RN from New Milford, who admitted abusing Percocet, Dilaudid and Xanax to excess between August 2012 and August 2013, according to a consent order.

Libertini also admitted stealing Dilaudid from the patient stock in August 2013 while working as a nurse at Danbury Hospital. She also took blank prescription forms from the hospital and forged 12 prescription orders to obtain Ambien and Xanax, the order said.

On March 30, 2015, Libertini tested positive for an anti-anxiety drug for which she did not have a prescription, and on April 29, 2015, her license was temporarily suspended, state records show. DPH records show the hospital fired Libertini.

On Sept. 9, 2015, Danbury police charged Libertini with multiple counts of obtaining controlled drugs with forged prescriptions, fraud, forgery, larceny and identity theft, DPH records show. She received accelerated rehabilitation, a special form of probation, in connection with the charges, records show.

The board also:

• Imposed a four-year probation on Lori Karen Salupen, an RN from Bristol, after she admitted at a hearing that she had stolen and abused Percocet in September 2015 while working at Cook Willow Health Center in Plymouth, the board’s memorandum of decision states.

• Imposed a four-year probation on Shelly Volpe, an LPN from Groton under a consent order with the board. The order said that she took oxycodone and other drugs from the Norwich Rehabilitation and Care Center, where she was working, and falsified one or more drug reports.

• Placed the license of Lindsay M. Wayman, an RN from Naugatuck, on probation for two years, a consent order said. The order said that while working as a nurse at Waterbury Hospital in 2008, Wayman abused alcohol, marijuana and/or opiates to excess and was unable to perform her duties as a nurse.

• Imposed a one-year probation on Allyssa Graham, an advanced practice registered nurse from Old Lyme, who will not be able to prescribe medication for herself or relatives during that year, under a consent order. Between July 2014 and July 2015, Graham prescribed multiple controlled substances for her husband and did not maintain medical records to support the prescriptions for painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs, state records show.

• Placed the license of Melody L. Williams-Destra, an RN from Bloomfield, on probation for one year after it found that in 2015 she created two false state Department of Education health assessment forms for a friend’s grandchildren and forged a co-worker’s name to the forms, records show.

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Out of work and addicted to the anti-anxiety medication Klonopin, Heather Delaney, a licensed practical nurse from Stratford, checked herself into Bridgeport Hospital in 2011 when she could no longer handle withdrawal without medical help.